Evidently WDIV (Channel 4) is going to do an expose on how campus security at EMU has NOT improved over the past year since the murder of Laura Dickinson. YCD thinks sure, EMU is an easy target right now, they're down, the Orange Taylor III trial is about to start back up again in January, and people love talking abou this stuff. Hell, people in Ypsilanti talk about this stuff.
Lemme tell ya what Johnny has seen with his own two eyes. Over the past year, Johnny sees far more campus DPS police cars cruising around campus than he EVER did before. YCD would say THAT is an improvement. Johnny has seen a couple members of the new security team on campus at night. YCD can clearly see in the public record that EMU itself has launched a safety audit through TranSystems Corp., who has also done work for Central Michigan University. EMU has increased the SEEUS program (a student based escort sytem for late nights) since last December. EMU has institued a GOTCHA program for rooms found left unlocked. Campus and housing officials leave a card in the room of anyone found with an unlocked door. EMU has also instituted a new key policy for lost keys to help improve safety. YCD has also read COUNTLESS times in the Eastern Echo safety reminders to students over the last year.
These are all FACTS. FACTS. All instituted in ONE YEAR.
Has there been an increase in burglaries on campus? Yep, you bet. That cannot be denied. Is this because of the safety increases? HARDLY, Duh. Burglars are criminals of opportunity. You cannot stop everyone from committing crimes all the time. It cannot be done in a free society. So while burglaries are up (and no doubt the crux of the Channel 4 story), murders are down to ZERO. Yeah it's a little specious but it's true.
Look, EMU deserved all they got over the last year. They deserved all the critisism, the fines and the anguish. They performed poorly LAST YEAR. So far they HAVE made a boatload of improvements and have tried VERY HARD to improve not only campus safety but community relations and goodwill.
YCD is ready to give EMU some breathing room on this since they HAVE been so proactive. While YCD will watch the report, we think we see where it is headed right now, a hatchet job by Channel 4.
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2 comments:
Don't you think it's kind of funny that officials would literally have to go opening students' doors to check if they're locked or not?
Also, when the president's house thing went down, they did the same thing. Steve Wilson was a total douchebag with his "expose."
Also, glad SEEUS has stepped up. It was a joke when I was there. I would often have to walk to my dorm room when I was a youngin' with my phone dialed 9-1 and my finger hovering over 1.
Well it shows the EXTREME university committment/paranoia/aversion to legal action over the past year. They ARE trying, this is easy to see, they have a way to go, yes a couple morons have shown up on campus with a gun abnd robberies are up BUT they ARE obviously trying.
What was the report earlier this week? How BAD the security at airports STILL is, only 6+ years after 9/11. EMU is trying and as long as they keep trying hard it's difficult to blame them for the determined actions of a couple weenies.
Johnny used to be in a program back when he was at EMU called 'Night Walk' which was like SEEUS. Student participation and buy in is key. MALE EMU students are the MOST KEY to buy into campus safety. If they'll step up as a group to help things like SEEUS, that will help win the security battle.
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